Archive for Opinion

Every year since November of 2010, I have reviewed as many of the Christmas films I am able to find on TV, Cable, Streaming, in the Theater, and anywhere else that I can find them. [Click here for the special page]“>This is the Eighth year and I am at it again!

Starting TODAY I’ll start sending the holiday film reviews, but there is a list of hundreds of Holiday films that have already been reviewed. You’ll see them on the “Ed’s Christmas on TV Project” page, and you can recognize them as the titles will start with two snowflakes “**” in front of the name of the movie. These are films that appear on TV, on cable channels like Hallmark, and Lifetime, and all over the place. Many are available on demand and on Watch Instantly. I hope that if you are a Christmas Movie fan like I am, that this special list helps you find the gems among the clinkers are you enjoy your holiday viewing. Every year lots of new ones are released, and believe it or not, there’s still a few out there that I still haven’t seen. I’ll be scouring the schedule for new ones to add to the hundreds I’ve already done. Hallmark has switched to Christmas Movies already and have several releases from Christmas in July five months ago, so I am going to get started.

May the holiday season be bright and cheery to you all. Best wishes for a Happy New Year of great films! As long as they keep making them, we’ll keep watching them! Lots of changes coming in the next year. Let’s try to keep in touch to spread the enjoyment of a good film with good friends.

Every year since November of 2010, I have reviewed as many of the Christmas films I am able to find on TV, Cable, Streaming, in the Theater, and anywhere else that I can find them. [Click here for the special page]“>This is the Sixth year and I am at it again!

Starting tomorrow I’ll start sending the holiday film reviews, but there is a list of hundreds of Holiday films that have already been reviewed. You’ll see them on the “Ed’s Christmas on TV Project” page, and you can recognize them as the titles will start with two snowflakes “**” in front of the name of the movie. These are films that appear on TV, on cable channels like Hallmark, and Lifetime, and all over the place. Many are available on demand and on Watch Instantly. I hope that if you are a Christmas Movie fan like I am, that this special list helps you find the gems among the clinkers are you enjoy your holiday viewing. Every year lots of new ones are released, and believe it or not, there’s still a few out there that I still haven’t seen. I’ll be scouring the schedule for new ones to add to the hundreds I’ve already done.

What is the worst part of going to the theater?

Back in 1971 and 1972 I was in the Philippines. The Philippines has some of the most beautiful movie palaces I have ever seen. When I was a kid we had a theater back home called “The Oriental” which was a showcase. Occasionally they would open the balcony and I spent quite a few Saturdays watching double features. But in Manila, there were huge decorated buildings. One theater had a dancing waters fountain in front of the screen, and in between films they would close the curtains and run the water show. There were theaters with stars that twinkled in the sky and clouds that would fly overhead. There was gold trim and velvet seats and curtains. It was amazingly beautiful. Now this wasn’t 1940 or anything, this was 1972. In the US in those years they were tearing down the theaters and building the mall based cinder block megaplexes. But in the Philippines it was still prime time for theaters. Now when I was a kid, even, we would look up the starting time for the movie in the paper, and show up 10 or 15 minutes before to have time for popcorn and soda and to find a good seat. But, though I’ve heard it used to be this way here, in the Philippines nobody paid any attention to the time a movie started. They would walk in at any time in the middle of the movie, and then when it was over, after a brief intermission to sell Jujubees, the movie would start again, and you’d stay till the point where you caught up to where you came in, and then we’d leave. The phrase “This is where I came in” came from this practice. But in the Philippines a visit to the theater was a big deal, and it was comfortable and air conditioned, and because you could come in any time and leave anytime, you could stay and watch the whole movie again and again and again. For one price you could watch the film many times.

In the middle between the movies they would play the Philippine national anthem, a trailer or two and a newsreel and a cartoon. Then they started throwing in commercials. Not trailers for coming attractions, but real honest commercials. Now I understood commercials on TV because TV was free and somebody had to pay the bill. But when I paid for a movie ticket, I felt it was a really dirty trick to make you watch commercials while you are a captive audience. That sucked. That isn’t my choice for the worst part though.

Â Now, a movie starts at 7:10 PM. For a half hour before we watch ads. But at 7:10 we get a reminder to buy refreshments and to turn off our cell phone. Then 12, 13, 14, 15 movie trailers run. That takes 20 minutes or more. There are so many damn trailers that by the time they are done, you can’t remember anything you saw. Try to remember that film that you said, “I want to see that” when 13 more trailers run, and you cannot remember it. It goes on and on and on. Why do they overdo that so much? Is it $$$? Or is it just to let the stragglers come in? Well, perhaps, but people now depend on the fact that 7:10 means 7:35 and they don’t show up till 7:30.

But that’s not what I hate the most about the movie experience.

I can remember when great classic moves STARTED with a Logo for the studio. Leo growls, or the word Universal spins around the world. Then there’s a title. “Gone With the Wind” followed by “Starring” and about 2 or 3 names at the most. Maybe (but probably not) there’s a “Featuring”, or “With”, or “Introducing” and one more name. But do you know what comes up at the end of the movie? Two words. “The End”.

Watch TMC or AMC and catch the ending of one of those great old films like Casablanca or The Ten Commandments and at the end, there are only 2 words.

At some point they got the cute idea of saving the “Starring” till the end of the movie and having “Closing Credits”

Then they got longer and longer and longer? Does anyone know who started this and when, but it comes to the point where if you’re watching a film on DVD, and the counter tells you there’s 30 minutes left, the movie’s over man. There is up to a half hour of listings of the “people” involved in making the picture. We have the entire crew including the carpenters, the set painters, the security guards. There’s the people who arrange the flowers on the catering table as well as the person who folds the napkins and the drivers of the limos that bring the cast members to the site. On and on and on and on and on it goes with the most minuscule jobs being listed page after page after page. How about the one who made copies of the script on a copier, and the guy who made the copier, and the one who delivered it to the studio. Nobody can pay any attention to that, so the moment they start, people start leaving. So then they started bribing us by showing a secret scene at the end so you’ll sit through all the nonsense. Then they started putting bloopers in during the credits. Anything to make you stay and watch it. Sometimes there are 2 or 3 surprise scenes tacked in. But all you can think about is how much you need a restroom at this point, and if you stay and stand in the exit aisle till the movie ends and everyone buy you is gone and there is no “Easter Egg” at the end, but just a blank screen.

This is what I hate the most. The movie is the little bit tucked in between the 15 previews and the 30 minutes of names you can’t pronounce. Why do they do this, and why do we stand for it? Is it vanity for the folks whose names appear up there? I’m not sure, but I wish they would go back to the old day.

Meanwhile, before you go to the film, go to imdb.com to look up whether there is any “crazy credits” at the end that you “HAVE” to see. Then when you get out of the theater and you want to know who that guy is who played the painter, or where the beach scenes were filmed, head to IMDB.com on your cell phone while you’re waiting for the Valet to bring your car around.

What do you do? I used to try to read the credits out of respect, but many years ago I got fed up and quit. Now, though I feel it’s disrespectful to the actor, director, and producers to walk out, the moment the music starts, I walk out. What do you think?

That’s my opinion anyway.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â === EdÂ ===

Greetings followers of Ed’s Review. It seems like I’ve been doing this most of my life. It’s hard to even remember how many years it’s been since I started doing this. A little research shows that it’s been 5 years this month. The first review I ever posted was for an awful movie called “The Crazies” which was a remake of a George Romero horror flick from the 70’s. That was on July 15th 2010. It was in December of 2010 that I did my very first “Christmas Movies on TV” project which I have faithfully done every year since. Last year I swore I wouldn’t do it, and when I saw the list of new films for the holidays, I had no choice but to watch them and review them! Then I decided some months ago not to do it this year, and then something happened that made me sure I will. During the 5 years I’ve been doing this I’ve made over 1700 posts.

Have you heard of Christmas in July? The actual date Christmas in July is July 25th, naturally, but most folks celebrate it the whole month. The custom was started by a business in Australia that was looking to drum up some business in the middle of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere since the Australian Christmas comes in the middle of summer. It caught on, and has endured for centuries. This year, as soon as the smoke cleared from the July 4th fireworks here in the States, Hallmark Channel immediately threw up two channels of Christmas movies on TV around the clock. I tried to stay away, but I couldn’t. I saw some of my favorites coming up, and I just had to turn it on, and as soon as I did, I found myself losing sleep enjoying Moonlight & Mistletoe, The Christmas Card, Silver Bells. There’s nothing more fun for me than watching Scrooge in July, darn it. Music Choice on the cable switched to Christmas music, and I must admit this is the first year I spent half of July listening to Christmas music, but it was a lot of fun.

Changing gears. I watch a LOT of movies. I love movies, and I love going to the theater, although it’s getting really expensive anymore, but by using matinee pricing and discount days (Tuesday usually) I try to do it as often as I can. Some years ago a theater opened at Gardenwalk in Anaheim that had a 21 and over theater that was filled with large leather reclining chairs, and waitresses that brought drinks and snacks as you wished. This was a premium option, but it was interesting to only have adults and to sit in such a comfortable setting and enjoy a cocktail with the movie. Recently all of out theaters, Regal, AMC, Century, etc. have been ripping out their auditoriums one after another and replacing them with the large reclining seats. They also offer a full dinner menu, things like steaks and grilled salmon, and the chairs have a table like those in the first class section of a plane, and you can have dinner and a movie at the same time. This seems to be a really big deal in California, and I would imagine this is starting to happen across the country and across the world. It is truly a different experience to watch a movie in a setting like this, and really hard to stay awake. So far, except for the original over 21 theater, the prices have been the same as they were before. There is a mad charge, of course, for ordering dinner, but if you use the concession stand and just watch a movie. But I don’t know if this is going to change the landscape or not. Will there become Have and Have Not theaters with bargain basement prices for a normal seat and premium prices for the nice seats? How long before the nice seats are beat up and ruined by the unruly public? And what about the base price tickets with all the upsells for IMAX, 3D, Xtreme Digital,etc? When we went to see Antman last week they tried really hard to get us to go into the XD showing in 3D as there was a $5.00 per ticket upgrade for that theater. When we went in, it was nearly empty because nobody likes to pay the premium upgrades. How do you feel about that? Is it worth it for the Upgrade. To me, I guess it depends on the film. I plopped down the extra 10 bucks and went for the 3D and XD experience and I really enjoyed it. But would I have liked the film as much if I saw it on the regular 2D screen? I don’t know.

Finally, as I said, I watch a lot of movies. I don’t watch a lot of TV. But now and then there is a program on TV that I HAVE to watch. I started into Nashville, and I can’t give it up. I started on Bates Motel, and I catch every episode. When I saw the ads for Wayward Pines, I had to watch it. This week the final episode was aired, and that’s why I said I was Shyamalan’d. I want to turn his name into a verb. Shyamalan has a very weird style to his films, and I’ve been a fan since the beginning. I like to watch the technical aspects of a film, and I don’t get lost in the story to the point that I can’t tell real life from fiction, but I am not the best at catching hints and figuring out what’s going to happen. Shyamalan is rarely predictable though, and he’s sucked me in many times. In the original Shyamalan film, Sixth Sense, I went into it with no previous notion of what it was about. I was pulled in hook line and sinker and at the big reveal at the end, I was stunned, much like I was stunned many years before in The Sting. Many folks did not like The Village, but I was totally sold on the story, and watching this old fashioned community get by surrounded by a forest of evil monsters. When Ron Howard’s blind (in the movie) daughter went over the fence, I was again floored. I had no idea that was coming.

Well, Wayward Pines, if you didn’t know, was produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and in keeping with his style it was very strange. The story caught me in the first 10 minutes, and I didn’t miss a second of the series. I even watched most of the shows several times to pick up anything I had missed. There are twists and turns in this story that are truly unexpected, and before you start into it, make sure you don’t know the details or it will truly spoil it. All of these episodes are up in On Demand, and there’s no doubt they’ll be on DVD very, very soon. I’ll try to let you know when I see them. But as I watched the final episode, the suspense built up to a fever pitch, and I realized there was only 7 or 8 minutes left to wrap this thing up. I couldn’t see any way they could wrap this thing up in 7 minutes. But wrap it up they did, but the surprise ending once again blew me away. I didn’t see that coming. Damn.

So when you’re watching a movie and really enjoying the story, and suddenly you lose all orientation and wonder what the heck just happened, let’s call it being Shymalan’d. It happened to me Thursday night. And during the last episode they previewed a new movie he’s got coming to theaters this fall. Here we go again.

Thanks for reading my rambles and feel free to use the comments to let me know your opinions. I would love to have your feedback.